Oh, I should have said! BeauSoleil.
For the same tour, I believe he also did a version of Bowling for Soup’s “1985” and it was also great. (Bowling for Soup did not write the song, but they were the group to make it popular.)
I have a copy of the Beausoleil album “Cajun Conja” that Thompson guested on. You can definitely hear his distinctive style in several of the tracks.
I remembered another fun moment from one of Thompson’s solo shows. He broke a string during one song so while he was putting a new string on, he had the crowd join him in a sing-along of “Sam Hall”
Those are my two favorite Richard Thompson songs!
BeauSoleil are great.
Isn’t Zara Phillips Princess Anne’s daughter?
That’s what I got too when googling the name, but it’s just a coincidence that she shares a name with Richard Thompson’s wife, who was born in the USA.
He does the best version of “The Blackleg Miner,” too.
Heh. I would have really been surprised if he’d married into royalty!
No Canadian stops on the tour. 
My wife and I had a VIP Meet & Greet with him about ten years ago. I was wondering what I could say to him that he hasn’t heard a thousand times before. And I didn’t want to sound like a star-struck simp.
Amazingly, he played “Devonside” during the show. This was the ONLY time I’ve ever heard/seen him play this song live. This gave me the chance to ask him how much of his catalog he could play without having to go back and study a song. He seemed a bit surprised, but went on to guess that he could keep about a hundred songs in his head before the older ones got fuzzy.
Well, I’m a bit late as the concert was already two days ago, but of course I keep my promise to report about it. First thing: this concert was one of the pleasures of my life, and all of you who said that you can’t go wrong in seeing Richard Thompson were right.
It was in a small music bar called Musiktheater Piano in Dortmund, Germany, a cozy, down-to-earth place with at most 300 people in attendance, probably even fewer, although they were sold out. I hadn’t been sure if it would be a solo or band concert, but when I entered the stage hall, there only was a single microphone stand, a guitar rack and a bar stool with a lonely bottle of water on the stage. And I knew I was in for a treat. He entered the stage on time at 8 PM and was all smiles and laughs from the beginning. He told jokes, stories and anecdotes, joked with the audience and animated us to sing along for the whole performance, I’ve never experienced such a great chemistry between an artist and their audience, and I’ve been to hundreds of concerts. It was obvious that he enjoyed the show as much as we did.
As for the songs he played, it was a mixture of songs from his whole career (the oldest being the Fairport Convention song “Genesis Hall”), highlights from his greatest albums, songs from his latest album “Ship To Shore” (which was excellent) and even songs from obscure EPs he released during the Covid lockdowns (which according to him, nobody bought and are still stacked in some warehouse 
).
He played about an hour solo before a half hour break, and returned with his wife Zara Phillips who sang background, beautifully. Like everybody, I have my favorites, and I thought before that if he would play “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”, “Beeswing” or “Shoot Out The Lights”, my goal in life would have been fulfilled. And just before the break, he announced the next song with “This is a song about a love triangle. A love triangle between a boy, a girl and a motorbike”, and I knew I was in Heaven. He also played some other songs that are dear to my heart, like “Withered And Died” and “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight”.
He’s 76 now, but he looked and sounded as strong, firm and powerful as ever and in much better shape than most of the audience. I’m 57, but was one of the youngest in attendance, 65+ men with grey to white beards and pony tails ruled . And while those guys all wore mostly hippie, at least casual cloths, the only guy under 30 in the audience wore a dark blue suit and a white dress shirt! Young people are weird (of course when I was young, I wasn’t weird, I let my freak flag fly).
To sum it up: to see a musician of Thompson’s caliber in a tiny club and such an intimate setting was a dream come true and an experience very few people will ever make. It was like seeing Bob Dylan in the favorite music pub of my youth, the now defunct “Blaues Haus” (The Blue House). I will never forget this concert, and everyone who reads this and hasn’t seen Richard Thompson before: watch out for your local places and go see him if he plays in your neighborhood!
I love that you had such a great, personal show, and that the crowd was so along with him. A memory to treasure (and one that might pop up on later sharing sites, as he hasn’t minded recordings that go through the sound board in the past)
[for my own part, a member of Beausoleil broke his arm, so the show he’s doing with them got bumped to November]
I saw Richard Thompson’s “1000 Years of Popular Music” live show a number of years ago and it easily qualifies as one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The premise was wonderful: a rock mag asked a group of performers for their “best songs of the last 1000 years.” In an interview, Thompson said “they really meant the last 10 years,” but he called their bluff and sent songs that literally spanned 1,000 years. Apparently, his list was rejected (rock journalism has little tolerance for Middle English or Latin) so he decided to take his list and tour. It was amazing, and also included fantastic versions of some modern songs such as “Whoops! I Did it Again,” and “1985.” I hope he considers doing more historical “popular” music.
Delighted for you. So pleased that it was everything you wished for.
Just one thing
I don’t have a pony tail. Just sayin’. 
j
Oh, I’m grey bearded and haired too. I still have the potential for a pony tail (as I sported in my twenties), but It’d look ridiculous because of the contrast to the bald spots at the front and top…I never wanted to look like a clown.
ETA: hmm, as this thread is about Richard Thompson, maybe I could start wearing a barret?
I envy you the experience, at least I have a copy of the DVD compiled from 2 successive performances at a club called Bimbo’s in San Francisco. He was accompanied by Judith Owen on keyboard and vocals, and Debra Dobkin on percussion and vocals.There’s a short interview segment where Richard describes the Rolling Stone magazine request for various musicians picks of the best popular songs from the past millennium. According to the liner notes, he only went back to the year 1260 for the earliest song on his list.
I envy you, @EinsteinsHund . Glad you had such a good time. Sadly, doesn’t look like he’s touring in Canada on this tour.
We’ve been going to the new-ish concert hall in Groton, MA, which is very much a high-end, wealthy suburb experience. It’s mostly jazz, classical, and Americana (as an example, we just saw Bela Fleck’s new trio there), and while it’s a bit over an hour drive, we really like it. It has a 1000-seat hall, and a 300-seat hall, both pretty intimate.
A few days ago, I got a surprise announcement, “Richard Thompson is coming November 9th!”, tickets on sale today at 10AM (when we’re at duplicate bridge). But in the 300-seat hall? wtf are you people thinking. I logged on during the middle of a hand (I was 1NT declarer) and managed to grab 3 tickets (despite having the ones I first clicked on snagged before I could confirm), and they were sold out by 10:04.
Anyway, just now I got an email that they’re moving to the 1000-seat hall - duh - and they’ll honor the approximate location of our seats.
tl;dr: very lucky to be seeing RT twice in November, in two very different venues.
Well. I’m glad for you, and I’m also jealous. Next time he’ll play in my vicinity, I’ll definitely go see him again.
I was very, very happy to see your post today, which lead me to find out he is also playing in Beverly, MA in November. Just grabbed two tickets.
Woot! I’ve never been to the Cabot, should be fun.
there are still seats in the back at Groton, by the way.